The Estonian Center of Registers and Information Systems (RIK) is beginning to develop an e-solution for micro-businesses by next year which will enable them to compile annual reports in English in such a way that the official document eventually filed is still completed in Estonian.

Asked whether the requirement to file accounts in Estonian may discourage English-speaking business owners from becoming e-residents of Estonia, Kurmet Ojamaa, director of the Entrepreneurship and Accounting Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance, told BNS, "The provision of the Accounting Act obliging businesses to file their annual reports in Estonian remains in force and there is no plan to change it."

He clarified that on the initiative of the Ministries of Finance and Justice, RIK has begun work on a development which will make it easier for micro-businesses to file their accounts.

"Since the report of a micro-business contains no free text, the report can conveniently cnverted into an English or Estonian format," Ojamaa continued. "Only the signed report in the Estonian language will be submitted to the register."

He added that according to current plans, this possibility will become available to micro-businesses beginning Jan. 1, 2017.

The amended Accounting Act, which took effect at the beginning of this year, significantly eased requirements concerning the annual accounts filed by the owners of micro-businesses, obliging them to submit just two main statements — a brief balance sheet with the mandatory fields filled out as well as an income statement.